156 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 them by the Uzbekistani security services. The group secretly made their way to neighbouring Kazakstan and reportedly asked for asylum. According to a spokesperson for the 17 refugees quoted by the news agency, the movements of returnees in Andizhan were closely monitored by security services. They reportedly "lived in constant fear". Some returnees were reportedly arrested on return to Uzbekistan. However, it was not possible to obtain any information on the whereabouts of those detained. Russian Federation of presumption of innocence. A week after his deportation, the district court in Moscow found Rustam Muminov not guilty of violations of the administrative code. A criminal investigation into the unlawful deportation of Rustam Muminov was opened. Despite all this, the Federal Migration Service (FMS) informed Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie that Rustam Muminov had left the country voluntarily on 24 October, not awaiting a final court decision. In March 2007 Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie learned that Rustam Muminov had been sentenced to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in Uzbekistan. He had been held incommunicado for at least three months. Deportation of Rustam Muminov Rustam Muminov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, had been detained in February 2006 following an extradition request from the Uzbekistani authorities. The Russian Procurator General decided on 29 September that Rustam Muminov could not be extradited to Uzbekistan and he was released the same day from detention. However, during his period in detention, his registration in the Russian Federation had expired and following his release, the authorities refused to renew it. On 17 October he was detained again at the office of the Russian human rights organization Komitet Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie (Civic Assistance) in Moscow. The same day a court in Moscow found him guilty of violations of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation in connection with his expired registration permit, and issued an order for his deportation. A lawyer from Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie appealed against this order on his behalf. Rustam Muminov also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to take interim measures to halt his deportation. Despite these two pending court decisions on 24 October Rustam Muminov was taken in handcuffs to an airport in Moscow and flown to Uzbekistan. According to the news agency Interfax, the Federal Security Service proclaimed Rustam Muminov guilty of crimes committed in Uzbekistan, which would constitute a violation of the principle Amnesty International Fear of forcible deportation of Abdulaziz Boimatov According to information received by Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie Abdulaziz Boimatov, a citizen of Uzbekistan who had been living in the Russian Federation since 1997, was detained by Russian law enforcement officers in Sverdlovsk Region on 25 April 2007. According to a relative who accompanied him to the local police station, an official from the FMS took all of Abdulaziz Boimatov’s documents and then escorted him to the city of Ekaterinburg. On 26 April his relatives contacted the FMS in Ekaterinburg who reportedly had no record of Abdulaziz Boimatov. They were unable to locate Abdulaziz Boimatov in any detention centre in Ekaterinburg. However, the relatives were told by officials at the local airport that a certain Boimatov had been put on a flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan earlier that day. The first name was not Abdulaziz, however, his relatives were certain that Abdulaziz Boimatov had been forcibly returned to Uzbekistan. According to his wife, he rang her in the morning of 26 April and told her that he was being returned to Uzbekistan. Abdulaziz Boimatov, a pious Muslim, had reportedly left Uzbekistan in 1997 out of fear of being detained for his religious beliefs. In 1998 the Uzbekistani authorities charged him with attempting to overthrow AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007